FUNNY: Annual ‘worst passwords’ list revealed

Dan Hayes

Online security company, SplashData, has announced its annual list of the worst passwords people use to keep their computers secure.

Number one for the second year running is ‘123456’, closely followed by ‘password’, unchanged again from 2014.

But there are a host of new entries in the top 25, some seemingly related to the release of the latest episode in the Star Wars saga in cinemas.

The company say the list demonstrates the importance of keeping names, simple numeric patterns, sports and swear words out of your passwords.

CEO, Morgan Slain, said: “We have seen an effort by many people to be more secure by adding characters to passwords, but if these longer passwords are based on simple patterns they will put you in just as much risk of having your identity stolen by hackers.”

“As we see on the list, using common sports and pop culture terms is also a bad idea. We hope that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will take steps to strengthen their passwords and, most importantly, use different passwords for different websites.”

The company says three simple tips can help people protect themselves online. These are:

- Use passwords or passphrases of twelve characters or more with mixed types of characters.

- Avoid using the same password over and over again on different websites.

- Use a password manager to organise and protect your passwords, generate random passwords, and automatically log into websites.